TRV
Translation
Complete Jewish Bible
On the contrary, when he came to Rome, he diligently searched for me and found me.
Berean Standard Bible
Indeed, when he arrived in Rome, he searched diligently until he found me.
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In the KJVVerse 29,827 of 31,102
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Commentary on 2 Timothy 1 verses 15–18
15 ¶ This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
16 The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:
17 But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.
18 The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.
Having (Ti2 1:13, Ti2 1:14) exhorted Timothy to hold fast,
I. He mentions the apostasy of many from the doctrine of Christ, Ti2 1:15. It seems, in the best and purest ages of the church, there were those that had embraced the Christian faith, and yet afterwards revolted from it, nay, there were many such. He does not say that they had turned away from the doctrine of Christ (though it should seem they had) but they had turned away from him, they had turned their backs upon him, and disowned him in the time of his distress. And should we wonder at it, when many turned their backs on a much better than Paul? I mean the Lord Jesus Christ, Joh 6:66.
II. He mentions the constancy of one that adhered to him, namely, Onesiphorus: For he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, Ti2 1:16. Observe, 1. What kindness Onesiphorus had shown to Paul: he refreshed him, he often refreshed him with his letters, and counsels, and comforts, and he was not ashamed of his chains. He was not ashamed of him, not withstanding the disgrace he was now under. He was kind to him not once or twice, but often; not only when he was at Ephesus among his own friends, but when Onesiphorus was at Rome; he took care to seek Paul out very diligently, and found him, Ti2 1:17. Observe, A good man will seek opportunities of doing good, and will not shun any that offer. At Ephesus he had ministered to him, and been very kind to him: Timothy knew it. 2. How Paul returns his kindness, Ti2 1:16-18. He that receives a prophet shall have a prophet's reward. He repays him with his prayers: The Lord give mercy to Onesiphorus. It is probable that Onesiphorus was now absent from home, and in company with Paul; Paul therefore prays that his house might be kept during his absence. Though the papists will have it that he was now dead; and, from Paul's praying for him that he might find mercy, they conclude the warrantableness of praying for the dead; but who told them that Onesiphorus was dead? And can it be safe to ground a doctrine and practice of such importance on a mere supposition and very great uncertainty?
III. He prays for Onesiphorus himself, as well as for his house: That he may find mercy in that day, in the day of death and of judgment, when Christ will account all the good offices done to his poor members as done to himself. Observe, 1. The day of death and judgment is an awful day, and may be emphatically called that day. 2. We need desire no more to make us happy than to find mercy of the Lord in that day, when those that have shown no mercy will have judgment without mercy. 3. The best Christians will want mercy in that day; looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jde 1:21. 4. If you would have mercy then, you must seek for it now of the Lord. 5. It is of and from the Lord that we must have mercy; for, unless the Lord has mercy on us, in vain will be the pity and compassion of men or angels. 6. We are to seek and ask for mercy of the Lord, who is the giver and bestower of it; for the Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied justice, that mercy might be displayed. We are to come to a throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of need. 7. The best thing we can seek, either for ourselves or our friends, is that the Lord will grant to them that they may find mercy of the Lord in that day, when they must pass our of time into eternity, and exchange this world for the other, and appear before the judgment-seat of Christ: the Lord then grant unto all of us that we may find mercy of the Lord in that day.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 15–18. Public domain.
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John ChrysostomAD 407
Homily on 2 Timothy 3
"The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out diligently and found me." Observe how he everywhere speaks of the shame, and not of the danger, lest Timothy should be alarmed. And yet it was a thing that was full of peril. For he gave offense to Nero by making friends with one of his prisoners. But when he was in Rome, he says, he not only did not shun intercourse with me, but "sought me out very diligently, and found me." "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well." Such ought the faithful to be. Neither fear, nor threats, nor disgrace, should deter them from assisting one another, standing by them and succoring them as in war. For they do not so much benefit those who are in danger, as themselves, by the service they render to them, making themselves partakers of the crowns due to them. For example, is any one of those who are devoted to God visited with affliction and distress, and maintaining the conflict with great fortitude; whilst thou art not yet brought to this conflict? It is in thy power if thou wilt, without entering into the course, to be a sharer of the crowns reserved for him, by standing by him, preparing his mind, and animating and exciting him. Hence it is that Paul elsewhere says, "Ye have done well that ye did communicate with my affliction. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity." (Phil. iv. 14, Phil. iv. 16.) And how could they that were far off share in the affliction of him that was not with them? How? He says, "ye sent once and again unto my necessities." Again he says, speaking of Epaphroditus, "Because he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, that he might supply your lack of service toward me." (Phil. ii. 30.) For as in the service of kings, not only those who fight the battle, but those who guard the baggage, share in the honor; and not merely so, but frequently even have an equal portion of the spoils, though they have not imbrued their hands in blood, nor stood in array, nor even seen the ranks of the enemy; so it is in these conflicts. For he who relieves the combatant, when wasted with hunger, who stands by him, encouraging him by words, and rendering him every service, he is not inferior to the combatant. "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day." He had compassion on me, he says, he shall therefore have the like return in that terrible Day, when we shall have need of much mercy. "The Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord." Are there two Lords then? By no means. But "to us there is one Lord Christ Jesus, and one God." (1 Cor. viii. 6.) Here those who are infected with the heresy of Marcion assail this expression; but let them learn that this mode of speech is not uncommon in Scripture; as when it is said, "The Lord said unto my Lord" (Ps. cx. 1.); and again, "I said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord" (Ps. xvi. 2.); and, "The Lord rained fire from the Lord." (Gen. xix. 24.) This indicates that the Persons are of the same substance, not that there is a distinction of nature. For we are not to understand that there are two substances differing from each other, but two Persons, each being of the same substance.
OecumeniusAD 990
COMMENTARY ON 2 TIMOTHY
May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus; for he often restored me, and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he was in Rome, he diligently sought me out and found me; (may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day); and you yourself know how many things he ministered to me at Ephesus better than I do.
May the Lord grant mercy. Notice Paul's eagerness. He did not curse those who abandoned him, but only recounted what they did against him; but he prays much for the one who helped him, and not only for him alone, but also for his household. Therefore, they were virtuous, and so Onesiphorus educated them.
of the household of Onesiphorus. O blessed Onesiphorus! who was deemed worthy to restore Paul, may a part of you be with us also.
for he often restored me. Just like an athlete seized by the hardship of the struggle. And he was not ashamed of my chains. Leaving aside the dangers, he put forward the shame, persuading the student to be courageous. As if shame alone arises from the matter, and not danger approaching; although indeed danger was also present. For Nero raged against Paul as if one of his own household had instructed him.
he diligently sought me out. Not only, Paul says, did he not avoid my presence, although there was danger and he encountered me after being imprisoned, but he also sought me more earnestly than he owed until he found me. And those who share in the sufferings with the saints will also share in the crowns, as Paul himself says. "Well done, having shared my suffering." (Philip. 4:14)
may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord. Those who hold the opinions of Marcion leap over [ἐπιπηδῶσι]3 the Scripture, as if there were two Lords, but it says the Lord elsewhere. "But for us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things." (1 Cor. 8:6) What then shall we say? This construction is common in the divine Scripture. Just as it is said, Abraham said, "Abraham shall not enter," as if he said, "May the Lord grant him to find mercy with him." And if both the Father and the Son are indicated here, accept it, it is not even inappropriate. For both the Father and the Son are Lord, and the Spirit is Lord, but the one Lord is revealed in the three persons. "The Lord said to my Lord." (Ps. 110:1) That is, it is clarified to say thus the holy substances, as there: "The Lord rained fire and brimstone from the Lord." (Gen. 19:24)
to find mercy. But if Onesiphorus needs mercy in order to be saved, how much more do we?
he ministered to me at Ephesus. He always served, in Ephesus, in Rome. For the earnest man must always be an example in works.
CS LewisAD 1963
LETTERS TO MALCOLM: CHIEFLY ON PRAYER, Letter 20
Of course I pray for the dead. The action is so spontaneous, so all but inevitable, that only the most compulsive theological case against it would deter me. And I hardly know how the rest of my prayers would survive if those for the dead were forbidden. At our age the majority of those we love best are dead. What sort of intercourse with God could I have if what I love best were unmentionable to Him?
On the traditional Protestant view, all the dead are damned or saved. If they are damned, prayer for them is useless. If they are saved, it is equally useless. God has already done all for them. What more should we ask?
But don't we believe that God has already done and is already doing all that He can for the living? What more should we ask? Yet we are told to ask.
"Yes," it will be answered, "but the living are still on the road. Further trials, developments, possibilities of error, await them. But the saved have been made perfect. They have finished the course. To pray for them presupposes that progress and difficulty are still possible. In fact, you are bringing in something like Purgatory."
Well, I suppose I am. Though even in Heaven some perpetual increase of beatitude, reached by a continually more ecstatic self-surrender, without the possibility of failure but not perhaps without its own ardours and exertions--for delight also has its severities and steep ascents, as lovers know--might be supposed. But I won't press, or guess, that side for the moment. I believe in Purgatory.
Mind you, the Reformers had good reasons for throwing doubt on "the Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory" as that Romish doctrine had then become. I don't mean merely the commercial scandal. If you turn from Dante's Purgatorio to the Sixteenth Century you will be appalled by the degradation. In Thomas More's Supplication of Souls Purgatory is simply temporary Hell. In it the souls are tormented by devils, whose presence is "more horrible and grievous to us than is the pain itself." Worse still, Fisher, in his Sermon on Psalm VI, says the tortures are so intense that the spirit who suffers them cannot, for pain, "remember God as he ought to do." In fact, the very etymology of the word purgatory has dropped out of sight. Its pains do not bring us nearer to God, but make us forget Him. It is a place not of purification but purely of retributive punishment.
The right view returns magnificently in Newman's Dream. There, if I remember it rightly, the saved soul, at the very foot of the throne, begs to be taken away and cleansed. It cannot bear for a moment longer "With its darkness to affront that light." Religion has reclaimed Purgatory.
Our souls demand Purgatory, don't they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, "It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy."? Should we not reply, "With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I'd rather be cleaned first." "It may hurt, you know"--"Even so, sir."
I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering. Partly from tradition; partly because most real good that has been done me in this life has involved it. But I don't think suffering is the purpose of the purgation. I can well believe that people neither much worse nor much better than I will suffer less than I or more. "No nonsense about merit." The treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much.
My favourite image on this matter comes from the dentist's chair. I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am "coming round", a voice will say, "Rinse your mouth out with this." This will be Purgatory. The rinsing may take longer than I can now imagine. The taste of this may be more fiery and astringent than my present sensibility could endure. But More and Fisher shall not persuade me that it will be disgusting and unhallowed.
Your own peculiar difficulty--that the dead are not in time--is another matter.
How do you know they are not? I certainly believe that to be God is to enjoy an infinite present, where nothing has yet passed away and nothing is still to come. Does it follow that we can say the same of saints and angels? Or at any rate exactly the same? The dead might experience a time which was not quite so linear as ours--it might, so to speak, have thickness as well as length. Already in this life we get some thickness whenever we learn to attend to more than one thing at once. One can suppose this increased to any extent, so that though, for them as for us, the present is always becoming the past, yet each present contains unimaginably more than ours.
I feel--can you work it out for me and tell me if it is more than a feeling--that to make the life of the blessed dead strictly timeless is inconsistent with the resurrection of the body.
Again, as you and I have agreed, whether we pray on behalf of the living or the dead, the causes which will prevent or exclude the events we pray for are in fact already at work. Indeed they are part of a series which, I suppose, goes back as far as the creation of the universe. The causes which made George's illness a trivial one were already operating while we prayed about it; if it had been what we feared, the causes of that would have been operative. That is why, as I hold, our prayers are granted, or not, in eternity. The task of dovetailing the spiritual and physical histories of the world into each other is accomplished in the total act of creation itself. Our prayers, and other free acts, are known to us only as we come to the moment of doing them. But they are eternally in the score of the great symphony. Not "pre-determined"; the syllable pre lets in the notion of eternity as simply an older time. For though we cannot experience our life as an endless present, we are eternal in God's eyes; that is, in our deepest reality. When I say we are "in time" I don't mean that we are, impossibly, outside the endless present in which He beholds us as He beholds all else. I mean, our creaturely limitation is that our fundamentally timeless reality can be experienced by us only in the mode of succession.
In fact we began by putting the question wrongly. The question is not whether the dead are part of timeless reality. They are; so is a flash of lightning. The question is whether they share the divine perception of timelessness.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
In 2 Timothy 1:17, the Apostle Paul commends Onesiphorus for his exceptional loyalty and determined effort. Despite the dangers and difficulties associated with Paul's imprisonment in Rome, Onesiphorus diligently sought out the apostle and successfully located him, demonstrating a profound commitment that stood in stark contrast to the desertion Paul experienced from others. This verse highlights the invaluable comfort and support provided by a faithful friend in a time of severe adversity.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The verse employs several effective literary devices. Contrast is prominent, with Onesiphorus's diligent search standing in stark opposition to the abandonment Paul experienced from others, emphasizing his unique faithfulness. The use of the adverb "very diligently" functions as Emphasis, underscoring the extraordinary effort and determination Onesiphorus exerted, elevating his actions beyond mere casual concern to a profound act of loyalty. This also serves as a form of Characterization, painting a vivid portrait of Onesiphorus as a courageous, persistent, and genuinely compassionate individual. Furthermore, there's an element of Understatement in the simple declaration "and found [me]," which belies the immense difficulty and potential danger involved in locating a prisoner in Imperial Rome, thereby subtly magnifying Onesiphorus's achievement.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse provides a powerful theological statement on the nature of Christian fellowship and the practical outworking of agape love. Onesiphorus's actions exemplify a love that is not merely sentimental but active, sacrificial, and persistent, embodying the very essence of true friendship and loyalty within the body of Christ. In a world where Paul faced widespread desertion and hardship, Onesiphorus's diligent search and successful discovery of the apostle served as a tangible manifestation of God's sustaining grace and the comfort found in faithful community. It underscores the divine value placed on those who stand by the persecuted and suffering, demonstrating courage and compassion when it is most costly. This commitment reflects the call to bear one another's burdens and to show hospitality, especially to those in need, recognizing that such acts are service to Christ Himself.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
The account of Onesiphorus's diligent search for Paul in Rome challenges believers today to consider the depth of their commitment to fellow Christians, especially those facing hardship, isolation, or persecution. It calls us beyond superficial expressions of care to a proactive, persistent, and even sacrificial engagement. Are we willing to step out of our comfort zones, to expend significant effort, and to risk personal inconvenience or reputation to seek out and support those in need within our spiritual family? Onesiphorus's example reminds us that true Christian love is not passive; it is an active pursuit of the well-being of others, particularly when they are vulnerable. This verse encourages us to be the kind of friend who "sticks closer than a brother," providing tangible comfort and unwavering solidarity, embodying the refreshing presence that Paul so deeply cherished.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why was it so difficult for Onesiphorus to find Paul in Rome?
Answer: Finding Paul in Rome would have been exceptionally difficult for several reasons. First, Rome was an enormous, densely populated city, making it a challenge to locate any specific individual without precise information. Second, Paul was a prisoner, likely held in various, possibly undisclosed, or frequently changed locations to prevent communication or escape. Roman authorities would not have made it easy for visitors to access prisoners accused of sedition or being leaders of a new, often persecuted, religious movement like Christianity. Onesiphorus's "diligent" search implies he had to overcome significant bureaucratic hurdles, navigate a dangerous political climate, and perhaps even risk his own safety by associating with an enemy of the state. His persistence in the face of these obstacles highlights his extraordinary loyalty and courage.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Onesiphorus's diligent search for Paul in the vast and dangerous city of Rome profoundly foreshadows the ultimate "seeking" of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Onesiphorus actively pursued Paul, overcoming obstacles to bring comfort and presence, so too did Christ come into a world lost in sin, actively seeking out and saving the lost. Luke 19:10 declares, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Christ's mission was not passive; it was a relentless, self-sacrificial pursuit of humanity, culminating in His identification with our suffering and His death on the cross. Furthermore, Onesiphorus's faithfulness in standing by Paul, even in chains, mirrors Christ's unwavering faithfulness to His people, even when they are weak or persecuted. Jesus Himself identifies with those who are imprisoned and suffering, stating in Matthew 25:35-40 that when we minister to "the least of these," we are ministering to Him. Onesiphorus embodies the love of Christ, a love that "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). His actions are a beautiful, human reflection of the divine initiative of God in Christ, who diligently sought us out and found us, bringing us into His comforting and liberating presence.